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Man am I glad for this thread (and that it's a sticky!). As a newbie to fan game making, it really helps to be able to see what NOT to do. It's interesting what seems to be all around no-nos, and what seems to be more a matter of taste. I now have good idea of what to pay attention to while I'm working on my game.

There's a few things I wanted to comment on as well.

Fakemon- It seems that it's not necessarily the design or even the existence of a fakemon that people don't like, but the quality of it's sprite. I feel the same way. I personally love seeing peoples ideas, but if the art sucks, it just ruins it for me. Pokemon Chaos Black was the first ever fan game I've played, and it almost completely turned me off from fan games forever!

Bad grammar/spelling- It drives me crazy! This is by far the worst, absolute worst thing a person can do in a game. What the frack is so hard to understand about running your text through a spell/grammar check? Or maybe even having a few people proofread a few times? I don't even tolerate bad grammar or spelling because the creator isn't a native English speaker, get some one who is to help you! There's been a few games I've played that I quite because of the language.

Huge maps- Even though the game I'm working on is enormous, I actually agree with this. I hate games that are massive for no reason. I makes me feel lost and apprehensive, which would be fine if that where the reason for large ares (like in mine), but to do it just for the heck of it drives me nuts. It's not bad though if there's huge areas balanced with smaller, tighter ones. That I actually like.

No creativity- Another thing that boggles my mind, is that people actually bother to put the effort to make a game, with a program that is so incredibly versatile as RMXP, and not actually add anything significantly new. I mean, what's the point? Hacks I can understand to an extent, since they are so limited, but to be lazy like that while using something that grants you so much freedom is just asinine.

No/bad demos- This is another thing that really confuses me. The point of a demo is to show off new features and to get people excited in your game. Again, if your not going to at least try to do that, then why even bother?

No one seem to know how to script- Like I said I'm new to this, but if I can't get the scripting down, I'm not even going to bother with my game. It's like saying you want to write a novel but you don't actually know how to write! It's not like Ruby is even hard to understand. I think the problem is that it actually takes time and effort to learn.

Presenting the game early/ no updates/ not finishing it- This is why I'm not even going to bother to make a thread for mine until it's about 75% complete. The Showcase forums on this site are actually really disappointing The only two complete games that I've played are full of errors, and the rest of them seem like they're never actually going to happen. So, so sad.

And lastly, making promises that can't be kept- This one I can see being very upsetting. This is why I've only ever mentioned what I want to add to my game, and not what I am. It's awesome when people come up with really cool ideas, but to say they're going to be added to the game and then not do it is really, really lame.

Huge maps- Even though the game I'm working on is enormous, I actually agree with this. I hate games that are massive for no reason. I makes me feel lost and apprehensive, which would be fine if that where the reason for large ares (like in mine), but to do it just for the heck of it drives me nuts. It's not bad though if there's huge areas balanced with smaller, tighter ones. That I actually like.

I think the main problem with huge maps is that they tend to be made for the sake of art rather than the sake of playing through them. That is, the designers forget how big the game window is that the player will be looking through in order to see their maps.

It's all about proportions. Maps can be whatever size you like, so long as the features in them are proportional to the game screen. Personally, I wouldn't like to walk down a forest path for half a minute (traversing many screen widths) only to find it's a dead end. On the other hand, huge forest mazes where the dead ends are short and don't take up much time to explore (i.e. about 10 seconds tops for the return trip) would be fine. It's all about the sense of progression, which is something you don't get when you're forever stumbling down mile-long dead ends and not making much real progress. On the other hand, very long boring paths in which nothing happens is just as bad, even if you are heading in the right direction. You can't even do something clever with the camera angles like that bridge in Isshu (which was still tedious, by the way).

Another disadvantage of large maps is that they're much more difficult to fill in. Consequently some don't, and have awful wide open spaces. And the way you fill in the space is important too - an array of fields is neither clever nor nice. If it's not adding anything to the map other than "realism", and particularly if the player should never have to venture near it, then get rid of it - put it on the other side of an untraversable fence or something. You can still have it, just don't force the player to go through it.

Of course, as I mentioned, not all huge maps are bad by default (just all the ones I've ever seen are). They can be good, so long as you remember how big the window is and keep the map features to that scale, and keep things interesting (enemy trainers/acres of long grass are not interesting).

Oh, and huge maps means more events, which means more lag. Just saying.

I think the main problem with huge maps is that they tend to be made for the sake of art rather than the sake of playing through them. That is, the designers forget how big the game window is that the player will be looking through in order to see their maps.

It's all about proportions. Maps can be whatever size you like, so long as the features in them are proportional to the game screen. Personally, I wouldn't like to walk down a forest path for half a minute (traversing many screen widths) only to find it's a dead end. On the other hand, huge forest mazes where the dead ends are short and don't take up much time to explore (i.e. about 10 seconds tops for the return trip) would be fine. It's all about the sense of progression, which is something you don't get when you're forever stumbling down mile-long dead ends and not making much real progress. On the other hand, very long boring paths in which nothing happens is just as bad, even if you are heading in the right direction. You can't even do something clever with the camera angles like that bridge in Isshu (which was still tedious, by the way).

Another disadvantage of large maps is that they're much more difficult to fill in. Consequently some don't, and have awful wide open spaces. And the way you fill in the space is important too - an array of fields is neither clever nor nice. If it's not adding anything to the map other than "realism", and particularly if the player should never have to venture near it, then get rid of it - put it on the other side of an untraversable fence or something. You can still have it, just don't force the player to go through it.

Of course, as I mentioned, not all huge maps are bad by default (just all the ones I've ever seen are). They can be good, so long as you remember how big the window is and keep the map features to that scale, and keep things interesting (enemy trainers/acres of long grass are not interesting).

Oh, and huge maps means more events, which means more lag. Just saying.

I have in mind a huge, open wasteland that the player has to survive in, and I've been trying to work out how to map it. I'm going to make the screen size of the game pretty large, but I know I'm still going to have issues with too much open space and not enough interesting things. See, a huge part of my game is realism, with (hopefully) a lot of OW events and actions. You've given me a lot to think of, so thanks.

Quote:

You may not realise it, but you the whole point of a beta is to report glitches and spelling errors so the full game doesn't have them.

In the short time I've been here, I've already seen many common issues that are the same with the RPG Maker community as a whole:

1) Most projects, especially ones that look impressive, never get finished. This is highly disappointing, and while I'm guilty of this myself, you should consider that once you have a fan base going on, you should keep it. I guess it's easier said than done, as most indie-developers don't devote their lives to this sort of thing, and finding motivation can be hard sometimes.

2) The projects are too ambitious. It kind of comes with the fact that we are developing pokemon games. It is horrifically time consuming to design, purpose, and assign movepools to new pokemon, and to do about 100 of them is even worse. And it's not just with creating pokemon, its with coming up with gameplay, level design, story, etc. I think people need to realize that they are NOT going to make a game that matches the professional quality of the real games, but rather try to do the best they can in a condensed amount of time.

As an aspiring new game developer, I chose that they all look the same, or I should have chosen that they all have the same story line. I know it breaks away from the formula which is Pokemon, which is what I'm looking into, but these Pokemon games are the same thing of "Get badges, fight bad guys etc" and it does get boring sometimes. I'd like to see some new things in fangames.

As an aspiring new game developer, I chose that they all look the same, or I should have chosen that they all have the same story line. I know it breaks away from the formula which is Pokemon, which is what I'm looking into, but these Pokemon games are the same thing of "Get badges, fight bad guys etc" and it does get boring sometimes. I'd like to see some new things in fangames.

yeah, i agree, the "Beat the champion, spoil the bad peoples plot, etc." is really getting old :/ but i really dont care about the graphics. and another thing, good looking hacks never get finished, which i find disappointing. Also, (yeah i know im going on and on) most newbees dont really plan out the whole hack, for example, i found a hack where a legandary just appears with absoulutly no backstory at all! And some fangames (hacks in particular) dont have any originality, some that do are
pokemon ruby destiny rescue rangers by destinyjagold
pokemon topaz by bazza (because you get to be evil for a change)
etc.

~Cyndaquil2607~

__________________

It is coming. It's approaching me slowly. It's coming after me. I must hide. I must escape. But I know I cannot. It is always present, but is never truly there. It claims lives that have already been ended. It causes depression but also causes grace.It is Death and it is coming for me.

The worst thing is that the best ones never get finished...
And most part of fakemons are simply very ugly (except for Acanthite).

There are guys who just waste their precious time making stupid games, when they should join to make a good game. I see lots of unfinished and bad projects, with bad fakemon... I would prefer to have only 1 finished project of a decent game.

What just gets me greatly annoyed is that people just decide this:
lolololololololololol let's just make 150 NEW Fakémon without putting any effort into spriting them
OR we promise new features and never do them or get somebody to do everything for me lololol orz

__________________

Everything you say to me pushes one step closer to the edge

And I'm about to breakI need a little room to breathe...Steam IGN: Hybrid Theory

They never get completed.
It annoys me so much when I come across V3.5 (or something like that) of a fangame on the internet and I spend hours trying to find V3.6, only to find out that it doesn't exist and never will.
No original content
If you're making a fangame then at least include something new. The whole point of a fangame is that it is made by you and is new. If everything is the same as previous games then people are going to get bored. I also hate it when people come up with something that has the same features as a pokégear, the same layout as a pokégear, the same purpose as a pokégear, but isn't called a pokégear.
Boring/ overused storylines
Do not create a fangame that has the same basic plot as 86% of all the rest. Add a twist, or make it completely new, just don't keep the same get-a-pokémon-from-professor-tree-defeat-eight-gyms-and-save-the-world-from-evil-team plot.

Well, I don't like a game being in development for a year or more without even a beta for us to play (Like Blue Chrome). It may be a good game, but hey, we're human, and get bored of waiting.

I like Fakemon. Especially evolutions/pre-evos of existing ones. I'm not as big on Eevee evolutions, but I like the idea of Mettaleon.

I don't like crossovers. I see people making Pokemon with final fantasy characters in it. The only game I played that incorporates Final Fantasy into Pokemon perfectly is Super Pokemon Eevee Edition. I like some things, like Harvest Moon features =3

And last, but not least, Giving up on the project. My laptop crashed and I lost Mint Version. but I got off my @$$ and started from scratch, and guess what? It's better than ever now that I've matured a bit more! I actually planned everything out this time, and I won't lose interest.

^ agreed. If you have atleast 30 mins of gameplay, theres no reason not to have a beta.
Not only does it build up hype and satisfy fans, but it also allows people to report bugs and give suggestions.

Minor peeve.

but when people do this on the main posts
Screenshots

Spoiler:

Comming Soon

Why the need for the spoiler tag? If the thing is less than 2 lines it doesn't belong in a spoiler tag unless it's really a spoiler. Especially seeing the spoiler tag makes you think theres an image in there... then you become let down by the fact theres nothing. :(

I agree. Dont forget that there are many game developers/hackers from other countrys, many of them can not write/speak with proper grammar, including me. But as someone already said, you can get some people to check those things, it's better to aim for the best and make it look professional.

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